The tempest
in Rizal's verse struck the Philippines in the 16th century. It was the
Spanish Empire and the lost alphabet was a script that is known today
as the baybayin.

Contrary
to the common misconception, when the Spaniards arrived in the islands
they found more than just a loose collection of backward and belligerent
tribes. They found a civilization that was very different from their own.
The ability to read and write is the mark of any civilization and, according
to many early Spanish accounts, the Tagalogs had already been writing
with the baybayin for at least a century. This script was just beginning
to spread throughout the islands at that time. Furthermore, the discovery
in 1987 of an inscription on a sheet of copper in Laguna is evidence that
there was an even more advanced script in limited use in the Philippines
as far back as the year 900 C.E. (See
The Laguna Copperplate Inscription)

Literacy of the Pre-Hispanic Filipinos

Although one of Ferdinand Magellan's shipmates, Antonio Pigafetta, wrote
that the people of the Visayas were not literate in 1521, the baybayin
had already arrived there by 1567 when Miguel López de Legazpi reported
that, “They [the Visayans] have their letters and characters like those
of the Malays, from whom they learned them.” B1
Then, a century later Francisco Alcina wrote about:

The characters of these natives, or, better said, those that have been
in use for a few years in these parts, an art which was communicated
to them from the Tagalogs, and the latter learned it from the Borneans
who came from the great island of Borneo to Manila, with whom they have
considerable traffic...
From these Borneans the Tagalogs learned their characters, and from
them the Visayans, so they call them Moro characters or letters because
the Moros taught them... [the Visayans] learned [the Moros'] letters,
which many use today, and the women much more than the men, which they
write and read more readily than the latter.B2

The baybayin continued to thrive in many parts of the Philippines in
the first century of Spanish occupation. Even before the end of the 1500's
the Spaniards were already printing books in the Tagalog script
(see Literature), which indicates at
least an adequate level of literacy. Some accounts went so as far as to
say that the literacy rate was practically 100%. A Jesuit priest, Father
Pedro Chirino wrote in 1604 that:

So accustomed are all these islanders to writing and reading that there
is scarcely a man, and much less a woman, who cannot read and write
in the letters proper to the island of Manila. B3

And Dr. Antonio de Morga, a Spanish magistrate in the Philippines echoed
Chirino's enthusiasm in 1609:

Throughout the islands the natives write very well using [their letters]...
All the natives, women as well as men, write in this language, and there
are very few who do not write well and correctly. B4

These often quoted observations were exaggerations, of course; the historian
William H. Scott managed to turn up several examples from the 1590s of
datus who could not sign affidavits or oaths, and witnesses who could
not sign land deeds in the 1620s. B5
Nevertheless, it appears that wherever the baybayin was available, literacy
was common not only among the elite but at all levels of society.

Pre-Hispanic Writing Techniques

The pre-Hispanic Filipinos wrote on many different materials; leaves,
palm fronds, tree bark and fruit rinds, but the most common material was
bamboo. The writing tools or panulat were the points of daggers
or small pieces of iron. Among the manuscripts in Charles R. Boxer's collection,
known as the Boxer Codex, there is an anonymous report from 1590 that
described their method of writing, which is still used today by the tribes
of Mindoro and Palawan to write their own script:

When they write, it is on some tablets made of the bamboos which they
have in those islands, on the bark. In using such a tablet, which is
four fingers wide, they do not write with ink, but with some scribers
with which they cut the surface and bark of the bamboo, and make the
letters. B6

Once the letters were carved into the bamboo, it was wiped with ash to
make the characters stand out more. Sharpened splits of bamboo were used
with coloured plant saps to write on more delicate materials such as leaves.
But since the ancient Filipinos did not keep long-term written records,
more durable materials, such as stone, clay or metal, were not used. After
the Spaniards arrived Filipinos adopted the use of paper, pen and ink.

A Hanunóo boy
of Mindoro
carves letters into a piece
of bamboo. The Hanunóo
script is one of three
forms of the baybayin that
is still in use today.

The bamboo document and the dagger used to write it.

From The Alphabet: A Key
to the History of Mankindby David Diringer. 1948, p. 300.

Origin of the Baybayin

The word baybayin is a Tagalog term that refers to all the letters
used in writing a language, that is to say, an “alphabet”  although,
to be more precise, the baybayin is more like a syllabary. It is from
the root baybáy meaning, “spell.” This name for the old Filipino
script appeared in one of the earliest Philippine language dictionaries
ever published, the Vocabulario de Lengua Tagala of 1613. Early
Spanish accounts usually called the baybayin “Tagalog letters” or “Tagalog
writing.” And, as mentioned earlier, the Visayans called it “Moro writing”
because it was imported from Manila, which was one of the ports where
many products from Muslim traders entered what are now known as the Philippine
islands. The Bikolanos called the script basahan and the letters,
guhit.

Paul Rodriguez Verzosa

Another common name for the baybayin is alibata, which is a word
that was invented just in the 20th century by a member of the
old National Language Institute, Paul Versoza. As he explained in
Pangbansang Titik nang Pilipinas in 1939,

"In 1921 I returned from the United States to give public lectures
on Tagalog philology, calligraphy, and linguistics. I introduced the
word alibata, which found its way into newsprints and often mentioned
by many authors in their writings. I coined this word in 1914 in the
New York Public Library, Manuscript Research Division, basing it on
the Maguindanao (Moro) arrangement of letters of the alphabet after
the Arabic: alif, ba, ta (alibata), “f” having been eliminated for euphony's
sake." B7

Versoza's reasoning for creating this word was unfounded because no evidence
of the baybayin was ever found in that part of the Philippines and it
has absolutely no relationship to the Arabic language. Furthermore, no
ancient script native to Southeast Asia followed the Arabic arrangement
of letters, and regardless of Versoza's connection to the word alibata,
its absence from all historical records indicates that it is a totally
modern creation. The present author does not use this word in reference
to any ancient Philippine script.

Many
of the writing systems of Southeast Asia descended from ancient scripts
used in India over 2000 years ago. Although the baybayin shares some important
features with these scripts, such as all the consonants being pronounced
with the vowel a and the use of special marks to change this sound,
there is no evidence that it is so old.

The shapes of the baybayin characters bear a slight resemblance to the
ancient Kavi script of Java, Indonesia, which fell into disuse in the
1400s. However, as mentioned earlier in the Spanish accounts, the advent
of the baybayin in the Philippines was considered a fairly recent event
in the 16th century and the Filipinos at that time believed that their
baybayin came from Borneo.

This theory is supported by the fact that the baybayin script could
not show syllable final consonants, which are very common in most Philippine
languages. (See Final Consonants)
This indicates that the script was recently acquired and had not yet been
modified to suit the needs of its new users. Also, this same shortcoming
in the baybayin was a normal trait of the script and language of the Bugis
people of Sulawesi, which is directly south of the Philippines and directly
east of Borneo. Thus most scholars believe that the baybayin may have
descended from the Buginese script or, more likely, a related lost script
from the island of Sulawesi. Whatever route the baybayin travelled, it
probably arrived in Luzon in the 13th or 14th century.

Literature of the Ancient Filipinos

All early Spanish reports agreed that pre-Hispanic Filipino literature
was mainly oral rather than written. Legazpi's account of 1567, quoted
earlier, went on to say:

They have their letters and characters... but never is any ancient
writing found among them nor word of their origin and arrival in these
islands; their customs and rites being preserved by traditions handed
down from father to son without any other record. B8

They have neither books nor histories nor do they write anything of
length but only letters and reminders to one another... [And lovers]
carry written charms with them.B9

Aside from writing letters and poetry to each other, the ancient Filipinos
adorned the entrances of their homes with incantations written on bamboo
so as to keep out evil spirits.

In the Spanish era Filipinos started to write on paper. They kept records
of their property and their financial transactions, and Fr. Marcelo de
Ribadeneira said in 1601 that the early Filipino Christians made little
notebooks in which they wrote, “in their characters or letters” the lessons
they were taught in church. B10
They often signed Spanish documents with baybayin letters and many of
these signatures still exist in archives in the Philippines, Mexico and
Spain. There are even two land deeds written in baybayin script at the
University of Santo Tomas. (See:
Baybayin Handwriting)

To take advantage of the native's literacy, religious authorities published
several books containing baybayin text. The first of these was the
Doctrina Christiana, en lengua española y tagala printed in 1593.
The Tagalog text was based mainly on a manuscript written by Fr. Juan
de Placencia. Friars Domingo de Nieva and Juan de San Pedro Martyr supervised
the preparation and printing of the book, which was carried out by a Chinese
artisan whose name was not recorded for posterity.

For modern scholars the Doctrina is like the Rosetta Stone of
baybayin writing and 16th century Tagalog. Each section of the book is
presented in three parts: first, the Spanish text then, the Tagalog translation
written in the Spanish alphabet, and finally the Tagalog written in the
baybayin script. The Doctrina is the earliest example of the baybayin
that exists today and it is the only example from the 1500s. The book
also provides a view of how Tagalog was spoken before Spanish had a chance
to make its full impact on the language. (A facsimile
of the Doctrina can be purchased at a very low price at
Reflections of Asia.)

The Doctrina of 1593 was printed using the woodblock method. That is,
an entire page was carved into a single block of wood. Ink was then applied
to the block and a thin sheet of paper was gently brushed onto it to pick
up the engraved image. This method did not ensure regularity in the shapes
of the baybayin characters. However, when printing with moveable types
came to the Philippines in the beginning of the 1600s, baybayin letters
began to take on more consistent, though stylized shapes because each
character was carved into its own moveable block. Fr. Francisco Lopez
used a set of these types in 1620 to produce his Ilokano Doctrina
based on the catechism written by Cardinal Belarmine, best know today
as the first inquisitor of Galileo. The typeface he chose was used in
at least two earlier Tagalog books and today it is one of the most popular
baybayin styles among enthusiasts of the ancient script. (See
Baybayin Styles) It was in this book
that Lopez attempted to reform the baybayin, which, in the view of most
Spaniards, was seriously flawed. (See
Final Consonants)

Nevertheless, the Spanish friars used the baybayin script not only to
teach their religion to the Filipinos, but also to teach other clerics
how to speak the local languages. The writers of the early grammars encouraged
their readers to learn the baybayin, as Fr. Francisco Blancas de San Jose
explained in his Arte y reglas de la lengua tagala of 1610:

Sometimes adjoining the Tagalog word written in Spanish letters I place
the Tagalog characters with which the same word is also written, in
order that through them whoever can read them can come to know the proper
pronunciation of that word... For which reason those who wish to speak
well should learn to read Tagalog characters... B11

The baybayin was also described in Visayan grammar books of the 1600s
such as Alonso de Méntrida's Arte de la lengua Bisaya-Hiligayna de
la isla de Panay, 1637, and Domingo Ezguerra's Arte de la lengua
Bisaya en la provincia de Leyte, 1663. However, Ezguerra's example
of the script contained printing mistakes. A kind of Spanish check mark
was put in the place of two different letters. Méntrida wrote the following
about his typeface:

It is to be noted that our Bisayans have some letters with different
shapes, which I place here; but even they themselves do not agree on
the shapes of their letters; for this reason, and because of the limited
types available, I have shown the characters according to the Tagalogs.
B12

The Baybayin Method of Writing

The baybayin was a syllabic writing system, which means that each letter
represented a syllable instead of just a basic sound as in the modern
alphabet. There were a total of 17 characters: three vowels and 14 consonants,
but when combined with the small vowel-modifying marks, called kudlíts,
the number of characters increased to 45. This way of writing is called
an abugida.
When a person spelled a word orally or recited the baybayin, the individual
letters were called babâ, kakâ, dadâ, etc., but the original sequence
of the letters was different to what it is today. This “alphabetical”
order was recorded in the Tagalog Doctrina Christiana.

In their simplest form, each consonant represented a syllable that was
pronounced with an a vowel (like the u in “up”). Simply
adding a tick, dot or other mark to the letter, would change the inherent
a vowel sound. These marks were called kudlíts, or diacritics
in English. A kudlit was placed above a consonant letter to give
it an i or e vowel sound. When it was placed below the
letter it changed the vowel sound to u or o.

The three vowel characters were only used at the beginning of words and
syllables, or syllables without any consonant. There were only three vowels
because the ancient Tagalogs, and many other linguistic groups, did not
distinguish between the pronunciations of i and e, or u
and o until Spanish words entered their languages. Even today
these sounds are interchangeable in words such as lalaki/lalake
(man), babae (woman) and kababaihan (womanhood or womankind),
uód/oód (worm), punò (tree trunk) and punung-kahoy
(tree), and oyaye/oyayi/uyayi (lullaby).

The vowel characters actually represented vowels that were preceded by
a glottal stop. This pronunciation was more common in the pre-Hispanic
era but has changed over the centuries due to the influences of western
languages. This shift can be seen when early texts, such as the Doctrina
Christiana, are compared to modern Filipino. For example, we syllabicate
the words ngayón (today) and gagawín (will do) as follows:
nga-yon and ga-ga-wín respectively. But the baybayin text
of the Doctrina reveals a different syllabic division. Ngayón was
written, ngay-on, and gagawin was written ga-gaw-in.

The R Sound

The Tagalogs used only one character for da and ra, .
The pronunciation of this letter depended on its location within a word.
The grammatical rule has survived in modern Filipino that when a d
is between two vowels, it becomes an r as in the words dangál
(honour) and marangál (honourable), or dunong (knowledge)
and marunong (knowledgeable).

However, this rule could not be relied upon in other languages, so when
other linguistic groups adopted the baybayin, different ways of representing
the r sound were required. The Visayans apparently used the
d/ra character for their own words but used the la character
for Spanish words. (See
Visayan examples.) Fr. Lopez's choice of d/ra or
la seemed to be random in the Ilokano Doctrina, which caused
many corruptions of Ilokano words. (See excerpts from
his Doctrina.) However, a chart
drawn by Sinibaldo de Mas in 1843 showed la doubling for the Ilokano
ra while his Pangasinan list showed no substitute for ra
at all. The Bikolanos modified the d/ra character to make a distinct
letter for ra. (See the chart in Baybayin
Styles.)

The Nga Character

A single character represented the nga syllable. The latest version
of the modern Filipino alphabet still retains the ng as a single
letter but it is written with two characters. The ng is the alphabet's
only remaining link to its baybayin heritage.

Punctuation

Words written in the baybayin script were not spaced apart; the letters
were written in a continuous flow and the only form of punctuation was
a single vertical line, or more often, a pair of vertical lines. || This
fulfilled the function of a comma and a period, and indeed, of practically
any punctuation mark in use today. Although these bars were used consistently
to end sentences, they were also used to separate words, but in an unpredictable
manner. Occasionally a single word would be enclosed between these marks
but usually sentences were divided into groups of three to five words.

Final Consonants

The most confusing feature of the baybayin for non-native readers was
that there was no way to write a consonant without having a vowel follow
it. If a syllable or a word ended with a consonant, that consonant was
simply dropped. For example, the letters n and k in a
word like bundók (mountain) were omitted, so that it was spelled
bu-do.

The Spanish priests found this problem to be an impediment to the accurate
translation of their religious texts. So, when they printed a lesson in
baybayin it was usually accompanied by a Spanish translation and the same
Tagalog text using the Spanish alphabet, as in the Doctrina Christiana.
Other priests simply stopped using the baybayin in favour of the alphabet.
The first attempt to “reform” the baybayin came in 1620 when Fr. Francisco
Lopez prepared to publish the Ilokano Doctrina. He invented a new
kudlít in the shape of a cross. This was placed below a baybayin consonant
in order to cancel the inherent a sound. Lopez wrote:

The reason for putting the text of the Doctrina in Tagalog type...
has been to begin the correction of the said Tagalog script, which,
as it is, is so defective and confused (because of not having any method
until now for expressing final consonants - I mean, those without vowels)
that the most learned reader has to stop and ponder over many words
to decide on the pronunciation which the writer intended.B13

Although Lopez's new way of writing provided a more accurate depiction
of the spoken language, native Filipino writers found it cumbersome and
they never accepted it. In 1776, Pedro Andrés de Castro wrote about their
reaction to the invention:

They, after much praising of it and giving thanks for it, decided it
could not be incorporated into their writing because it was contrary
to the intrinsic character and nature which God had given it and that
it would destroy the syntax, prosody and spelling of the Tagalog language
all at one blow... B14

Direction of Baybayin Writing

The baybayin was read from left to right in rows that progressed from
top to bottom, just as we read in English today. However, this has been
a point of controversy among scholars for centuries due to conflicting
accounts from early writers who were confused by the ease with which ancient
Filipinos could read their writing from almost any angle. As the historian
William H. Scott commented,

The willingness of Filipinos to read their writing with the page held
in any direction caused understandable confusion among European observers
who lacked this ability - and causes some irritation to Tagalog teachers
in Mangyan schools today. B15
[Note: The peoples collectively known as Mangyans still use their own
form of the baybayin in Mindoro.]

Some observers were mistaken to believe that the baybayin should be read
vertically from bottom to top in columns progressing from left to right
because that was how the ancient Filipinos carved their letters into narrow
bamboo strips. However, it was simply a matter of safety that when they
used a sharp instrument to carve, they held the bamboo pointing outward
and they carved away from their bodies, just as modern Mangyans do today.
(See photo above.) This gave
the appearance that they were writing from the bottom upward. However,
this did not necessarily mean that the text was supposed to be read that
way too.

Although the ancient Filipinos did not seem to mind which way they read
their writing, the clue to the proper orientation of the text was the
kudlíts, or diacritic marks that alter the vowel sound of the letters.
In syllabic scripts such as Kavi, Bugis and others closely related to
the baybayin, the text was read from left to right and the diacritics
were placed above and below the characters (i/e was above
and u/o was below). When the ancient Filipinos carved the
baybayin into the bamboo strips, they placed the kudlíts to the
left of the letter for the i/e vowel and to the right for
the u/o vowels. Thus, when the finished inscription was
turned clockwise to the horizontal position, the text flowed from left
to right and the kudlíts were in their proper places, i/e
above and u/o below.

Some writers have claimed that there were several different ancient alphabets
in the Philippines, which belonged to different languages and dialects
in Luzon and the Visayas. The number of scripts mentioned usually ranges
from 10 to 12. However, none of the early Spanish authors ever suggested
that there was more than one baybayin script. In fact, even when they
wrote about other Philippine languages, they usually referred to the baybayin
as “Tagalog” writing or as quoted earlier, Pedro Chirino called it “the
letters proper to the island of Manila.”

The baybayin was a single script, and just like the alphabet today, its
appearance varied widely according to each person's unique handwriting.
(See: The Baybayin as Written by
Filipinos) When the printing press was introduced to the Philippines,
this variety was reflected in the typefaces. The misconception that each
province had its own alphabet arose in the 19th century, long after the
baybayin had fallen out of use. Authors who wrote about Philippine culture,
such as Eugène Jacquet (1831) and Sinibaldo de Mas (1843), collected old
samples of baybayin writing and classified them according to where they
were found or the language of the text. (See: Baybayin
Styles.) They were aware that these samples were variations
of one script but, later writers such as Pardo de Tavera and Pedro Paterno
around the turn of the century, assembled their own comparison charts
from these samples and other sources and labelled them as distinct “alphabets”
from various regions. (See: Paterno's
Cuadro Paleografico) These charts were later reproduced in
schoolbooks of the 20th century with very little in the way of explanation
for their content. Thus, through generations of copying and recopying,
these individual samples, many of which were merely one person's particular
handwriting style, came to be known as distinct alphabets that belonged
to entire regions or linguistic groups.

The clearest example of this kind of misinterpretation is the baybayin
typeface that Francisco Lopez chose in 1620 for his Ilokano Doctrina
and for his Arte de la lengua yloca of 1627. It first appeared
in two Tagalog books, Arte y reglas de la lengua Tagala (1610)
by Francisco Blancas de San Jose and Vocabulario de lengua Tagala
(1613) by Pedro de San Buenaventura. (See the chart on
the right.) However, Eugène Jacquet called this style the Ilokano
alphabet in his Notice sur l'alphabet Yloc ou Ilog (1831) because
it was used most notably in two Ilokano books. B16
But, as quoted earlier, even Lopez said that he put “the text of the [Ilokano]
Doctrina in Tagalog type.” Still, the Lopez typeface is often
mistakenly called the pre-Hispanic Ilokano alphabet.

Baybayin Lost

Although the baybayin had spread so swiftly throughout the Philippines
in the 1500s, it began to decline in the 1600s despite the Spanish clergy's
attempts to use it for evangelization. Filipinos continued to sign their
names with baybayin letters throughout the 17th, and even into the 18th
century, though most of the documents were written in Spanish. Gaspar
de San Agustín still found the baybayin useful in 1703. In his Compendio
de la lengua Tagala he wrote, “It helps to know the Tagalog characters
in distinguishing accents.” B17
And he mentioned that the baybayin was still being used to write poetry
in Batangas at that time. But in 1745 Sebastián Totanes claimed in his
Arte de la lengua Tagala that,

Rare is the indio who still knows how to read [the baybayin letters],
much less write them. All of them read and write our Castilian letters
now. B18

However, Totanes held a rather low opinion of Philippine culture and
other writers of the period gave a more balanced view. Thomas Ortiz felt
it was still necessary to describe the Tagalog characters in his Arte
y Reglas de la lengua Tagala of 1729 and as late as 1792 a pact between
Christians and Mangyans on the island of Mindoro was signed with baybayin
letters, which is not surprising because the Mangyans never stopped using
their script.

Many people today, both ordinary Filipinos and some historians not acquainted
with the Philippines, are surprised when they learn that the ancient Filipinos
actually had a writing system of their own. The complete absence of truly
pre-Hispanic specimens of the baybayin script is puzzling and it has lead
to a common misconception that fanatical Spanish priests must have burned
or otherwise destroyed massive amounts of native documents as they did
so ruthlessly in Central America. Even the prominent Dr. H. Otley Beyer
wrote in The Philippines before Magellan (1921) that, “one Spanish
priest in Southern Luzon boasted of having destroyed more than three hundred
scrolls written in the native character.” B19
Historians have searched for the source of Beyer's claim, but until now
none have even learned the name of that zealous priest. Furthermore, there
has never been a recorded instance of ancient Filipinos writing on scrolls.
The fact that they wrote on such perishable materials as leaves and bamboo
is probably the reason why no pre-Hispanic documents have survived.

Although many Spaniards didn't hide their disdain for Filipino culture,
the only documents they burned were probably the occasional curse or incantation
that offended their beliefs. There simply were no “dangerous” documents
to burn because the pre-Hispanic Filipinos did not write at length about
such things as their own beliefs, mythology, or history. These were the
subjects of their oral record, which, indeed, the Spanish priests tried
to eradicate through relentless indoctrination. But, in regard to writing,
it can be argued that the Spanish friars actually helped to preserve the
baybayin by continuing to use it and write about it even after it fell
out of use among most Filipinos.

It is more likely that mere practicality was the main reason that the
baybayin went out of style. Although it was adequate for the relatively
light requirements of pre-Hispanic writing, it could not bear the burdens
of the new sounds from the Spanish language and that culture's demand
for an accurate written representation of the spoken word. The baybayin
could not distinguish between the vowels i and e, or
u and o, or the consonants d and r. It lacked
other consonants too, but more important, it had no way to cancel the
vowel sound that was inherent in each consonant. Thus consonants could
not be combined and syllable final consonants could not be written at
all. Without these elements the meanings of many Spanish words were confused
or lost completely.

Social expediency was another reason for Filipinos to abandon the baybayin
in favour of the alphabet. They found the alphabet easy to learn and it
was a skill that helped them to get ahead in life under the Spanish regime,
working in relatively prestigious jobs as clerks, scribes and secretaries.
With his usual touch of exaggeration, Fr. Pedro Chirino made an observation
in 1604 that shows how easily Filipinos took to the new alphabet.

They have learned our language and pronunciation and write it as well
as we do, and even better, because they are so clever that they learn
everything very quickly... In Tigbauan [Panay] I had a small boy in
school who in three months, by copying letters that I received in good
script, learned to write much better than I, and translated important
papers for me most accurately, without errors or falsehoods. B20

But if reasons of practicality were behind the demise of the baybayin,
why did it not survive as more than a curiosity? Why was it not retained
for at least ceremonial purposes such as inscriptions on buildings and
monuments, or practiced as a traditional art like calligraphy in other
Asian countries? The sad fact is that most forms of indigenous art in
the Philippines were abandoned wherever the Spanish influence was strong
and only exist today in the regions that were out of reach of the Spanish
empire. Hector Santos, a researcher living in California, suggested that
obligations to the Spanish conquerors prevented Filipinos from maintaining
their traditions:

Tributes were imposed on the native population. Having to produce more
than they used to, they had less time to pass on traditional skills
to their children, resulting in a tightening spiral of illiteracy in
their ancient script. B21

Baybayin Found

In some parts of the Philippines the baybayin was never lost but developed
into distinct styles. The Tagbanuwa people of Palawan still remember their
script today but they rarely use it. The Buhid and especially the Hanunóo
people of Mindoro still use their scripts as the ancient Filipinos did
500 years ago, for communication and poetry. Dr. Harold Conklin described
Hanunóo literature in 1949:

Hanunóo inscriptions are never of magical import, nor are they on mythological
or historical topics. Written messages (love letters, requests etc.,)
are occasionally sent by means of inscribed bamboos, but by far the
most common use of this script is for recording ambáhan [Hanunóo] and
urúkai [Buhid] chants. Both of these types consist largely of metaphorical
love songs. B22

Dr. Fletcher Gardner described their postal system in 1943:

A bamboo letter is fastened in a cleft stick and placed by the trailside.
The first passer-by, who is going in the direction of the addressee,
carries it as far as his plans allow and leaves it again by the trail,
to be carried on by some other person. Perhaps half a dozen volunteers
may assist in conveying the letter to its designation. B23

Today there are small under-funded movements working to preserve these
living scripts, such as the Mangyan Assistance & Research Center in
Panaytayan, Mansalay, Mindoro, directed by Antoon Postma and the Palawan
State University Tagbanwa Script Project, aided by Dr. Jesus Peralta jr.
at the Philippine National Museum. In 1994, Hector Santos created several
Hanunóo, Buhid, and Tagbanuwa computer fonts for publishing and education
as well as fonts for the ancient baybayin.(See A
Philippine Leaf for more about these living scripts and Hector's fonts.)

The information revolution has allowed Filipinos to learn more about
the pre-Hispanic era on the Internet than was ever taught in Philippine
schools. As a result many Filipinos are taking a new interest in their
own heritage and it is usually the baybayin that catches their attention
first. Through the use of computer fonts, the baybayin is now being used
in graphic designs for web sites, multimedia art, jewellery, compact discs,
T-shirts, and logos. (See Baybayin
Links) And for some Pinoys, it seems that the path has come
full circle. Whereas long ago the Visayan pintados were tattooed
according to their status in the community, today a growing number of
young Filipinos are getting tattooed with baybayin characters to show
their pride in their heritage.

Visit Baybayin Links for more
information about the ancient scripts of the Philippines.

Many thanks to the following people who
have provided material and information for this article:
Charity Beyer Bagatsing, Michael Cueva, Terrio Echevez, Wolfgang Kuhl,
Jojo Malig, Dr. Malcolm Warren Mintz, and Hector Santos.